1 billion smartphone sales a year by 2016

The smartphone bandwagon seems set not just to roll on, but to pick up speed as, by 2016, industry analysts predict that there will be over 1 billion devices sold per year.

In 2010 there were between 298 million and 321 million smartphones sold, depending on whose figures you go by, with a total mobile phone shipment figure of around 1.6 billion.

According to Juniper Research the smartphone figure will rise to the billion figure by tempting more featurephone (or dumbphone as we like to call them) owners into the smartphone arena by offering "economy models".

We're already seeing a number of these budget smartphones being announced - the likes of the Orange Monte Carlo, the LG Optimus Pro and the Motorola Fire are just three Android examples of what's coming down the line in 2011.

Juniper's report author Daniel Ashdown said: "In developed markets, many consumers will want to upgrade from a featurephone to a smartphone, but still pay a featurephone price.

"In emerging markets though, lower average consumer spending power and lack of operator subsidies will make a low price point essential."

Android is currently the leader in terms of market share when it comes to smartphones (33 per cent) but Apple has recently overtaken Nokia in terms of revenue and profit when it comes to revenue and profit from the smartphone market.